"And where then are my chamberlains and attendants, by whom I ought to
be surrounded?" asked the prince, raising his languid head from the
bosom of Wilfrid, and looking round the spacious but deserted room of
state, in which he lay.
"They are all overcome by the terrors of the contagion," said Wilfrid.
"And why did you not flee from it also, Wilfrid?" asked the prince.
"Because, my lord," said Wilfrid, "I knew that you must perish if I
abandoned you."
"Ah! Wilfrid," said the prince, bursting into tears, "I deserve not
this goodness from you, for of late I have treated you very unkindly; I
know and feel that I have: can you forgive me?"
"Think no more of it, my lord, I pray you," replied Wilfrid, pressing
the burning hand of the prince to his lips. "I freely forgive all that
has passed, and only wish you to remember it, whenever you feel
disposed to yield to the impulses of a defective temper, which, for
your own sake, rather than mine, I earnestly hope you will correct."
Prince Edwin bowed his face on the bosom of his faithful page, and wept
long and passionately, promising, at the same time, amendment of his
faults if ever it should please his Heavenly Father to raise him up
from the bed of sickness on which he then lay.
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